power

As in, I’d bump into that striped easy chair in the living room and say, “Oh, I’m sorry.”

I’d run into the table and out would pop, “Excuse me!”

Yes, I was one of those women. One of those women whose most-often-uttered-word is an apology.

And it’s a very big club.

At Busch Gardens one time, I saw an elegant older woman driving a bumper car. Every time her car so much as brushed another car, she very clearly said, “Oh, I do beg your pardon.”

She was one of us.

Over time, here’s what I learned: When you start off with “sorry” – when you take credit for everything that’s gone wrong – you’re one-down at the outset of any encounter.

You’re automatically at fault.

And then it becomes that it’s always your fault.

When anyone is in doubt, it’s you who’s always wrong.

Which is one hell of a way to make sure you get all the blame for pretty much everything.

This past week, a client had a difficult situation with herself, a business partner, a client and deliverables that went undelivered. As we talked through it, she kept saying, “It’s all my fault.” As a recovered Aplogetic, I listened with care.

“Are you sure,” I asked, “that you are the single and only reason this happened the way it happened?”

As we explored the matter, it became clear that perhaps office politics were involved, and perhaps communications between the business partner and the client could have been better.

It became clearer and clearer that while my client had some responsibility for the situation, she didn’t bear all the weight for the problems the project had faced.

Why is it that some of us are quick to take responsibility for things that are really other people’s responsibility or completely out of our control?

We say things like:

“I should have been able to make this work.”

“I should have been able to keep this from happening.”

“I should have seen this coming.”

Really? You are so strong, so powerful, so capable that there is nothing in the world you can’t do? Including stopping earthquakes, holding back tsunamis and getting teenagers to clean their room?

I’d like to be able to say that the last week has led me into deeper awareness, spiritual growth and humility.

Yeah, I’d like to say that.

But I can’t.

Because, see – there was this storm called a “derecho” that barreled through our neighborhood with 70 mph winds at about 11pm on a Friday night:

and my family and I were plunged into darkness, with only:

and

which I had purchased either for Y2K, or after 9/11. We cranked that radio up and listened to the all-news radio station until none of us could keep our eyes open – and we fell asleep in the basement, the coolest place in our house.

Because I may not have mentioned that there was also a heat wave. Heat indices topped 105 degrees during the day, and fell back to the low 80s at night. So, it was hot, and there was no air conditioning, no cold drinks, no ice cream.

The only relief inside the house came on a feeble breeze which, if you were laying on the couch in a certain configuration, you might just feel. Slightly.

Like panting dogs, every day we did a lot of laying around, because exertion made things worse.

From time to time, we’d get in the car and drive, to power up the phones and take advantage of the air conditioning. These drives were depressing – store after store after store, closed. No power. Grocery stores – closed, with all the perishable stock thrown out. Restaurants – closed, having lost all of their refrigerated stuff. Gas stations closed – did you know some stations rely on power to make their pumps work? One night I drove over 10 miles in the dark “below empty” because I couldn’t find an open gas station.

Wide swaths of my area were dark at night, and then you’d find one lonesome block with a McDonald’s, a gas station, a 7-11 – mysteriously supplied with power. Packed to the gills. People waiting. People slightly shell-shocked. Slightly panicked. Below empty.

As each day passed, day after miserable day, my scope of focus got smaller and smaller. Would we have power that day? What would we eat? Could we get ice? Where could we get ice? Was Subway going to be open so we could get a sandwich? If not Subway, then where? Were my kids ok? Over-stressed? Dehydrated? Was it going to be possible to sleep that night? Which hotels are open? Should I have made reservations? Should I now? Were we going to have enough clean clothes? Were my dogs overheating?

I realized that I had slipped to the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

when I’m usually spending my life way up at the top.

Funny, that. We work, work, work on our own personal development and growth and then something comes along to knock us back down to basics.

Finally, on Tuesday after days of suffering, I found a hotel that would take us in for two nights. Of course, the power came back the next day.

That’s the way it works, y’all.

Oh, I’d like to say that making it through multiple days without power during a heat wave was the most illuminating and fulfilling Thoreau-type moment of my life.

But that would make me a liar.

Because it was hard. It was hot. It was a challenge.

Five nights and five days of scorching heat, and little relief. Believe me, I was not thinking of personal growth – I was thinking about water.

And ice cubes.

And how quickly everything can change from the top of the pyramid to the bottom.

And how if you’re focused on whether you’re going to eat, sleep, drink or … not, it’s really hard to do much else.

Because when you are attached to a specific outcome, your single-minded drive toward your goal may make you blind to the feelings and needs of others.

Let’s say you are in a new relationship. You have peeked ahead, and see what you don’t currently have: children, a happy home and no financial worries, with that darling white picket fence. And you are deeply in love with the happy vision you’ve concocted. It’s nice that a man came along to be inserted into the picture!

When (not if) something comes up which precludes you getting what you want– it’s going to take time and energy to finalize his divorce from his wife — you become a petulant Veruca Salt, stamping her foot and saying, “Divorce her NOW!” Because you need what you want. You’ve assigned so much meaning to what you “need” that you’re blinded you to the reality of who your boyfriend is and any feelings he might have around the end of his marriage. From your perspective, his divorce is just something standing in the way of your dreams.

Wait a sec. If every good marriage is based on a deep caring and friendship with the other person, does pressing your dream outcome allow you to be the kind of friend and partner your boyfriend needs? Could you be destroying the very opportunity you desire by being so doggedly determined to get what you want?

Let’s say you want to change your life by starting your own business. You do the research, create a sound business plan, find a good opportunity, hire a lawyer and accountant, and draw up the legal papers. All good. You go so far as to envision what your first steps will be, how the place will feel, what each day will be like. OK, you’re fine. Visualization is an excellent tool to direct you toward a positive outcome. But if you’re so in love with the idea of you as the owner of a particular business in a particular location that you can’t see the shortcomings, pitfalls and weaknesses of your plan, you may end up overruling your advisers and taking a deal that’s not really in your best interest. Because you made up your mind about how it’s going to be, and that’s what it’s going to be.

Let’s say you’re running for President of the United States and you are so focused on winning that you can’t see that you’re behind in delegates, behind in the popular vote, behind in fundraising and have rising negative opinion polls. By golly, you’ve made up your mind that you are going to be President and that blind ambition propels you toward an outcome that’s growing more and more elusive. You stop listening to naysayers, surround yourself with “yes” people, and irreparably damage your public image with your frantic pursuit of your goal.

Honey, to reduce your stress and anxiety you’ve got to hold on loosely to your intended outcome. Loose enough to be able to grab on to an unexpected outcome that’s even better than what you had in mind. You can do this when you form your intention, visualize your dream and then say:

“This or something better.”

“This or something better” vs. “This is how it’s going to be” is being fluid vs. being rigid. It’s being present right here, right now, aware of the truth in this moment vs. being somewhere else, focused on what’s not yet happened — may not happen — and totally unaware of the truth.

It’s having arms wide open to serendipity vs. arms crossed against the chest with much foot stamping frustration.

Imagine lovingly whittling a hunk of wood into two parts — a square peg and a round hole. You can spend your lifetime attempting to insert the square peg you’ve created into the round hole you love, but how to get it to fit?

You really only have two options: reduce the size of the square until it fits into the hole, or craft a new, larger square hole.

When you detach from your outcome, it’s as if you’ve suddenly found a million unexpected holes in which the peg easily fits. When you have a good plan, and execute it to the best of your ability, and are then open to whatever happens, you will be amazed by the beautiful, happy, unexpected opportunities that present themselves.

The best in life coach tips and useful suggestions to help you get the life you want to live.

I got a question from a charming man this week, which prompted a choo-choo train of thought. Which, of course, I will share with you.

This intelligent, thoughtful man asked, “How can corporations navigate the new political waters?”

Good question.

I believe we are in the midst of a significant shift in the way everything is organized – from political life to corporate life to consumer behavior to personal action. As Steve Jobs said in his 2005 commencement address to Stanford students, it’s very hard to connect the dots looking forward, but much easier when you look back.

Looking back over the past several years, I see a clear trend toward what I call “Wikification”. You know Wikipedia? It’s the online encyclopedia which anyone in the world can add to, edit or revise. Over the last few years, it’s become the largest encyclopedia ever developed, and it’s increasingly the encyclopedia of record. In fact, the New York Times says over 100 U.S. judicial decisions have relied on Wikipedia since 2004.

Wikipedia broadens the scope of people who are involved in a process. Rather than a long, laborious, closed process by select scholars, the Wikipedia is a relatively swift, open collaboration by a wide spectrum of experts.

And who are those experts? Why, you and me.

Similarly, you have become the expert on what you listen to. Remember 20 years ago when you could only listen to Top 40, oldies, classical or acid rock on the radio? Today, thanks to IPods, satellite radio and the Internet, you can make your own playlist and listen to whatever you want. Many people don’t even listen to AM or FM radio any more. And as a result, some radio broadcasters have seen their revenue decline up to 50%.

Likewise, the recording industry has changed. It used to be that an artist could not get heard unless he had a contract with a major label. Now, however, an artist can get his or her start on the Internet and parlay that into sales and performing gigs. Record labels have folded, or suffered huge layoffs – and their profits have declined significantly.

You have to have three data points to see a trend, so let me give you another. Publishing. Remember how we used to say how hard it was to get a book published? Not so today. Why? Because you can publish a book with a service like Lulu.com and not split a cent of your profits with an agent or publishing house. The authors I have talked to recently suggest this is the way to get their work to the public – to bypass the publishing gatekeepers and keep the profits for themselves.

Just one more to make the point. Remember when we had three TV networks? If a story led the evening news, it led the national discussion. If the story were biased or incomplete or otherwise flawed, we had few ways to discover the truth. Now, however, viewership of the evening news has radically declined, and a plethora of news outlets exist. Indeed, the challenge for news consumers today is sifting through the many voices for what resonates as true. But the diversity of opinion, I believe, leads to a deeper understanding.

And that, my friends, is the trend. We are bypassing the gatekeepers. More and more, you are becoming your own gatekeeper. You are deciding what you listen to, what you read, what you watch, what you do.

What does this mean for the former gatekeepers? Beside sheer panic, there are a couple of things. First, no more wholesale, one-size-fits-all mindset. People want one-to-one relationships. They want respect for their own niche, their own interests.

Second, former gatekeepers need to shift from the “telling” posture (“We will tell you what you can like”) to the “listening” posture (“Tell me what you’d like.”) If gatekeepers fail to listen to their customers and clients, they will continue to develop products and services too macro – and find that demand is just not there.

Third, collaboration is key. A dialogue with customers, clients and users is vital. I can see a time when most companies host their own discussion boards so customers can provide instant input on products and services, allowing businesses to tweak or alter product lines – leading to greater success.

The problem many gatekeepers have with this new trend is a loss of power. Rather than a powerful individual or organization making a market, the market is made organically. It’s a diffusion of power, placing a chunk of it in many hands. And the former gatekeeper ignores this at his or her own peril. Those who continue with top-down approaches will find themselves either left behind or chasing dwindling markets.

So far, I’ve talked about business and not politics, but the trend is clear there, too. When Barack Obama raised a crowd of 20,000 by a single post on Facebook.com, I stood up and took notice. Once again, he spoke to a niche which might have been overlooked by the old gatekeepers.

Just like businesses, politicians need to adopt the listening posture, and stop telling. They, too, need to seek and use the expert advice of their constituents. They need to collaborate – with their colleagues as well as with their constituents. No more secret earmarks, no more smoke and mirrors. No more top-down approaches. No more power-grabbing. No more wholesale politics. No more business as usual.